NEWPORT BEACH : Robbins Imperiled Land Deal, Suit Says

State Sen. Alan Robbins warned a Newport Beach businessman trying to buy and develop choice property near Marina del Rey that he “would never get” a crucial government permit because the lawmaker wanted to acquire the land himself, the businessman has charged in court papers filed in Santa Monica.

Robert Blake also said Robbins (D-Tarzana) boasted that he had former Los Angeles City Council President Pat Russell “tied up” in connection with his efforts from 1985 to 1987 to buy 16 acres along Lincoln Boulevard. The property is subject to city planning rules.

Blake’s allegations are contained in documents filed recently as part of a complex web of civil lawsuits involving Blake, Robbins and a wealthy La Jolla car dealer, Jeremy Simms. The three were partners in a 3,800-acre parcel of Ventura County land that sold last year for $22 million. The profits from the sale also are a subject of the suits.

The litigation--which already includes a stack of paper work more than three feet high--recently prompted the state attorney general’s office to reopen a 1988 investigation that cleared Robbins of allegations that he illegally used campaign funds to help finance the Ventura County deal.

No trial dates have been set in the suits, the bulk of which are pending in Santa Monica Superior Court.

In an interview, Robbins denied that he tried to thwart Blake over the Lincoln Boulevard land. He said he didn’t even meet Blake until after he, Robbins, had signed a deal to purchase the first group of properties.

According to court documents, Robbins and a different partner purchased the land for $12.2 million and sold it last year for a reported $45 million.

The veteran lawmaker amassed a considerable fortune before and during his 17 years in the state Senate. He is a lawyer and licensed real estate broker, and he and a succession of partners have financed apartment complexes, medical buildings and office towers.

Blake said in court papers that Robbins complained that Blake’s attempts to buy the land were “messing up” efforts by Robbins’ firm, Marina East Holding Properties, to acquire it.

Blake said Robbins told him that the property could be developed only if the successful buyer “got a left-turn lane authorized for entrance and various other governmental approvals.”

“He added that if I got the property, and his group lost it, I would never get the left-hand turn lane and might have a difficult time in obtaining other required approvals,” Blake said in the court papers. “He told me that if we took the property from him, he would make sure it would not be worth our while.”

Robbins said, however, that the property Blake was trying to buy actually was a different property.

He said Blake wanted to build a hotel on the land and asked Robbins for permission to build a driveway through Robbins’ lots. The lawmaker agreed, but Blake was never able to carry out the hotel deal, Robbins said.